Pneumatic rubber tires conventionally have two spaced apart, relatively inextensible beads, usually composed of twisted, or cabled, metallic wires, which are surrounded by rubber components. A significant component which is conventionally positioned around a portion of the bead is the chafer. The chafer is a rubber composition conventionally designed to contact a rigid wheel rim and, therefore, interface between the tire and rim.
The chafer rubber composition is conventionally composed of a rubber composition which is carbon black reinforced. The chafer rubber composition may optionally contain a textile fabric reinforcement for dimensional stability, where the textile fabric portion of the chafer is conventionally adjacent to the bead portion of the tire, leaving the rubber portion of the chafer to contact the rigid wheel rim when the tire is mounted on such rim and inflated. In heavily loaded tires such as used in off-the-road applications such as mining, the chafer may be exposed to particularly harsh usage. There is a need therefore for an improved tire chafer.